May 312 min read

Beating The Texas Heat With Solar Air Conditioning

Every year it’s the same old thing, summer time arrives, the suns out the temps reach triple digits the power bill goes up as well. This year instead of complaining about it being so hot I’m going to try and harness the potential energy from the sun to help cool my home. So the project I’m referring to is solar powered air conditioning. I’ve started this project in early March and I’m building on a budget so it’ll be a small system that I can expand into a larger system through out the year.

My first step was to see what I already have on hand to start with so I started looking. In my shop I had a 200w 9BB solar panel from Bougerv. Now a single 200w solar panel is no where enough power to run an air conditioner or generator enough power to even keep up with demand but it’s a start. Next I looked in my camper where I found the next two components, a Renogy PWM solar charge controller and my Renogy 2000w pure sine wave inverter. Also I had a Gokwh 12.8v 100ah Lifepo4 battery that I used for a small back up power system in my camper. I’m off to a great start I have a solar panel to generate power, a charge controller to direct that power, a battery to store power and an inverter to use that power. I also remembered I had one more item I bought on the last Amazon prime days I planned on using for a project and that was the Eco Worthy Solar Sun Tracker with 2 axis actuation.

I began assembling the solar tracker and pouring a small concrete foundation in which to bolt it too. Once I had it assembled and mounted I mounted the 200W solar panel to it. Next was to run the wires into the house and connect the charge controller, battery and inverter. Below are the affiliate amazon links to these items.

Eco Worthy 2 AXIS Tracker : https://amzn.to/3V00mJz

BougeRV 200W Solar Panel: https://amzn.to/3K1qdKZ

Renogy Charge Controller: https://amzn.to/4dEYfSY

Renogy 2000W Inverter: https://amzn.to/4dHDrdC

GoKwh 12.8V 100A Battery: https://gokwh.com/?ref=i96hzs4o